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Published: January 3rd 2012
Honestly the most other-worldly place I have been in my life. Again this was a trip with Girlguiding UK and the aim was to ride across the Mongolian Steppe in aid of the Girlguiding UK Friendship fund.
Main thoughts about Mongolia: • Everywhere smells of cheese, EVERYWHERE, no exceptions, not even the airport.
• The grass is a lot sparser close up than it appears from a distance.
• Mongolian horsemen are like no other people I have met on earth - and how on earth they survive on nothing but 20 litres of (alcoholic) fermented mare's milk a day is beyond me. These men were literally born in the saddle and seeing them move with their horses as if they were all one being was amazing.
We arrived at the airport after an epic flight and piled straight into several rickety minibuses for a rather hair-raising 2 day journey out to the Steppe. This involved a lot of bouncing around and having to dig ourselves out of holes in the road on various occasions but it was all part of the experience! We spent the night in a Ger camp where we sampled our first taste
of Mongolian food (and vodka) before continuing our journey. We met our horses (which were a good deal smaller than we were expecting) and set off on the first of 10 days of riding.
In the days that followed we experienced all sorts of weather - from burning sun to thunderstorms and gales, we saw shooting stars (there is no light pollution in Mongolia), we saw places that would never be accessible by motor vehicle, we sang songs and the horsemen sang their traditional songs and did throat singing and every few days we would come across a ger settlement and the children would come galloping out to meet us on their horses. Disasters include our van getting stuck in a river crossing and many members of the group ending up with sodden clothes and baggage and one woman falling off her horse, breaking her arm and having a 3-day round trip to hospital. It was a truely unforgettable experience and is totally impossible to describe in words - you will have to go there to see it yourself!
Back in Ulaanbataar half of the group went to see a horse festival whilst the other half met with
the Mongolian Girl Guides, a very new organisation with only a couple of hundred members who were desperate to learn more about Guiding. We also visited the Mongolian State Orchestra (see below)
About Mongolia: How to get there: • Aeroflot (a terrifying airline if ever there was one) fly there via Moscow. You can also fly with British Airways via China if you prefer.
Things to do: • If you are there in the summer there are horse festivals which are pretty spectacular.
• Vist one of the many monastries (sorry I'm not sure how to spell that!)
• Take a horseback ride on the steppe. Horses are integral to Mongolian life and you have not experienced Mongolia if you haven't experienced it on horseback!
• Go see the Mongolian State Orchestra in Ulaanbataar - truely fantastic. A wonderful mix of traditional Mongolian music, throat singing, contortionists and even classical music - all played on traditional Mongolian instruments.
Places to stay: • We stayed at the Bayangol hotel in central Ulaanbataar for the few days we were there. It was very western (and had a fantastic
breakfast) but it was what we needed after 10 days without seeing a building at all! It also had fantastic views over the hillside portrait of Ghengis Khan.
• In a Ger (like a Yurt) if you possibly can!
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